Daily Roundup: February 25, 2010

Engulfing Guam: The EPA issued a sharply worded response to the planned U.S. military buildup on Guam, which could boost the island’s population by 79,000, overtaxing water supplies and sewage systems. A proposed aircraft carrier berth would also damage 71 acres of coral reef. Philly.com

Trash or Treasure? A U.N. report says that while a ton of ore needs to be moved to mine one gram of gold, 41 mobile phones contain the same amount of the precious metal. And 40 million tons of electronics end up in the trash annually. Spiegel Online

Plastic Patches: A 20-year study concluded that the Atlantic Ocean contains a large area in which plastic debris accumulates, similar to the well-documented garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean. BBC

Polluting the Po: An oil spill in a tributary threatens to contaminate Italy’s Po River, which runs through an important, wildlife-rich agricultural region. Yahoo! News

Wal-Mart Waking Up: Wal-Mart is pushing its suppliers to reduce 20 million metric tons of greenhouse-gas emissions by the end of 2015 -- that's 1.5 times Wal-Mart’s estimated carbon-footprint growth as it expands over the next five years. MSNBC

--Wendy Becktold